After seven consecutive losses, the New Orleans Saints decided to part ways with head coach Dennis Allen, and the team has now decided on his interim replacement.
On Monday, the team officially announced that special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi would be taking over as the team’s interim head coach.
Rizzi joined the Saints in 2019 as the special teams coordinator and was elevated to assistant head coach in 2022 following Allen’s appointment as head coach.
Before that, he served as the special teams coordinator for the Dolphins from 2010 to 2018, where he was also given the title of associate head coach in 2017.
While Rizzi does not have any experience as a head coach at the NFL level, he did have two stints as a head coach at the college level as he led New Haven from 1999 to 2001 and served as the head coach at Rhode Island in 2008.
The decision to part ways with Allen and replace him with Rizzi comes after the team lost seven consecutive games, capped off by an embarrassing loss to the division-worst Carolina Panthers on Sunday.
The Saints actually had an optimistic start to the season, beginning the year 2-0 with blowout wins over the Carolina Panthers and the Dallas Cowboys to start the season, but they have not won a game since.
Rizzi will now have a chance to prove that he should be the team’s full-time head coach beyond this season.
We’ll have to see if the coaching change is able to re-ignite the team.
The Saints are currently tied with the Panthers for last place in the division.
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